Complaint Review: NameCheap NameJet ENom - Bellevue Washington

I was recently on NameCheap to allocate an SSL certificate I had pending in my account when I noticed a large banner for .cm pre-registrations. I knew NameCheap had good pricing, so I took a peek.

I was redirected to a site called NameJet which said they'd charge no fee for pre-ordering, and if no-one else tried to get the domain name they'd hold the domain somehow, and you could grab it at your registrar. Cool I thought, I entered in a few domains for pre-order. They asked for credit card details in case any of the domains went to auction, with some language in there that I wouldn't need to bit on the domains if I didn't want to.

So, all seemed good; until I checked into the site a short while later it showed that my registrar was eNom instead of NameCheap. Checking on eNoms site told me they would charge me $350 per domain the day the land-rush ended. This wasn't what I was expecting, or has been told.

So, I get on the horn with NameCheap's live support to let them know I'd been taken for a ride, and wanted the domain pre-ordered canceled. The person at NameCheap informed me that they had absolutely nothing to do with the company from the banner, and they weren't even sure why the banner was there. They suggested I contact NameJet, which I did.

My conversation with NameJet looked a bit like this:

Customer 07/20/2009 04:49 AM

I seen an ad for .cm pre-register on my favorite registrar (NameCheap), and knowing they always charge around $9.69/yr for domains I went though the process for pre-ordering domains (figuring I'd be changed that for 2 years, per usual).

However, after completing the process I see the registrar listed on my pre-orders is different than the registrar I clicked your pre-order link on. And, their site shows a cost of $350 per domain (eNom). Which, I am not willing to pay.

Can I please have those domains removed/canceled?

Thanks

Response (Ben H.) 07/20/2009 01:44 PM

Hello,

Thank you for contacting NameJet Technical Support. I'll be happy to try and take care of this for you.

We currently do offer any refunds on submitted orders for .CM domains. Once you pre-order them, you have a very small time before you can remove them.

I have forwarded your ticket to management to request an exception on your behalf. While technical support is available 24 hours a day, we have limited access to our database developers after hours.

If approved, we will do all we can to make it happen as quickly as possible; however please note we make no guarantees this exception to normal procedures will be approved.

Thank you for your patience. I will update you via this ticket as soon as the request is processed or as I have more information available.

Best Regards,

Ben H.

Technical Support

Response (Ben H.) 07/22/2009 07:35 AM

Hello,

Unfortunately our management is unable to remove the orders once they have been submitted to the registry.

There is a chance that your domains may still go to auction. If that happens, you will want to ignore the auction and hope that you are outbid.

If you have any additional questions regarding this matter, please let me know.

Thank you for choosing us as your source for aftermarket domain names. We appreciate your business.

Ben H.

Technical Support

Suffice to say, I'm not a happy camper. My credit card wouldn't even be able to accept the charges for the domains as they would wish to charge them. As a last ditch effort I've also tried contact eNom regarding this, but haven't heard back as of yet. Looking at the NameJet site today, they now have a nice fees link up there, that I'm quite certain wasn't there before although NameCheap continues to be mum about actual costs involved.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to protest (and hopefully fix) this?

Update: I'd tried to pre-order a total of 9 domains, expecting to pay the usual namecheap price of $9.69 for two years for each domain, for a total of $174.42. With the $350 they now say I have to pay, that would total $3,150.00.

Mozillaman

Letang, NorthWest Territories

Canada